Essay Example. Thomas Friedman - Thank You For Being Late

The book examines the setting of the world in terms of people and culture. The areas that Friedman focuses on in the book include the political environment, geopolitics, ethics, standards, the workplace as well as the community. The book uses an analogy of machine operation to develop an understanding of the world today. According to Friedman, the market, mother nature, and Moore’s law are the drivers and shapers of the planet. The area of focus under the market in the book is the aspect of globalization in the realm of technological advancement. Friedman analyzes globalization using a positive linear graph and how technologies such as social media impact life on the planet (Friedman). Mother nature, according to the book, is the areas of climate change, human population growth, and biodiversity degradation, and how these changes influence life on the planet. Additionally, the book examines Moore’s law concerning the changes in technology, primarily through the introduction and development of microchips. In a nutshell, the book takes the planet to be at the center of exponential acceleration brought about by the intersection and interactions of Moore’s law, digitization and globalization, and climate change. All these interactions bring about specific solutions to the planet through changing and reshaping the world.

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Changes in the exponential power of the microchip form the underlying research data in the second part of the book. Friedman uses 1971 VW Beetle as an example to demonstrate the significant exponential changes of the microchip (Friedman). He uses this data in conjunction with market analysis to emphasize the impact of Moore’s law on the planet. In this section, Friedman uses statistical research on the gigantic strides that the world made between 2006 and 2007. He uses notable examples such as the rise and development of the iPhones, the shoot of Facebook from being a university communication media to being a global social media, and the launch and growth and development of Twitter, YouTube, and Airbnb, among others (Friedman).

Much of the research and data analysis in the book focus on companies' development, which brought about massive changes in the socio-economic lives of the people. For instance, the book explicitly examines the changes in DNA sequencing and associated costs. Friedman, in the book, examines the costs of DNA sequencing between 2001 and 2015. According to the book, there were significant changes in the costs of the sequencing per genome from $100,000,000 in 2001 to $1,000 in 2015 (Friedman). Friedman also uses statistical data on the growth in solar power energy production and consumption. His data analysis of the growth of solar power between 2005 and 2015 echoes on the interconnection between technological development and changes in socio-economic life. Other significant research and data in the book include the data consumption costs and speed, the launching of the computing clouds, and the cost data associated with these changes.

Friedman uses data and research to demonstrate human adaptability to the changes in technology. According to the book, human adaptability graph takes the shape of a gradual sloping line while that of advancement in technology takes an almost Moore’s law graph. Therefore, humans’ adaptation to the changes in technology tends to be at a slower rate. People cannot keep up with the high rates of changes in technology. The mismatch in the human adaptability and technological changes arises where humans require more time to learn the use of the various technological developments than the rate of the creation of these algorithms.

The book analyzes the trends that impact the general lives of people both at the individual level and on a global scale. One of these areas is the exchange of ideas between people and the community. Technological trends make it possible for people to exchange ideas and pass information at a very high speed. The exchange of information is vital in reshaping a workplace through the use of artificial intelligence (Ploderer 76). However, for Friedman, the focus is more on using intelligence assistance to help people better utilize the available technologies.

Innovation and entrepreneurship arising from technological advancement is another area of concentration of Friedman’s book. Innovation brings about globalization, which enhances interconnections in the world. The interconnections arising from globalization are not only evident in manufacturing and commerce, but also through the exchange of ideas and information globally (Gal-Or 190-200).

There are close relationships between the conclusions of the book and the contemporary society and economy. Friedman, in the book, concludes that the intersection between the market, the mother nature, and Moore’s law greatly influence human life on the planet. According to the book, the supernova is responsible for reshaping and establishing a new world order. Technological changes of 2007 brought about extraordinary shifts in life in the realm of commerce, political environment, social life, as well as impacting environmental and biodiversity changes. Today, people can do incredible things courtesy of the changes in technology. One of the significant impacts of the technological environment addressed by Friedman is the use of social media. Social media affects people’s lives in all aspects. In the realm of social and political life, social media has opened ways for social interactions regardless of the distance and the number of people involved. Additionally, it has created overwhelming opportunities for economic development through the introduction of e-commerce and social media advertising. However, the amplification of human powers through technology is detrimental as both makers and breakers have an equal chance to the opportunities created by technology.

The ethics in the workplace in the chapter “Is God in Cyberspace?” examines the importance of ethical standards of different working environments, specifically in the recent technology-related fields. The amplification of the powers of individuals through technology means that a single person can cause significant harm to others easily. At the same time, many people can come together through the powers of technology to change the world. Therefore, ethics is critically essential in cyberspace, just like any other workplace. Friedman, in the book, calls for people to uphold integrity and ethical practices when using the tools of technology. In contemporary life, technological development has been among the leading causes of moral degradation. Some of the negativity of the changes in technology include social decay, cyberbullying, and cybersecurity issues, among others. All these are problems that are possible to solve through ethical standards.

Works Cited

Friedman, Thomas L. Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations (Version 2.0, With a New Afterword). Picador USA, 2017.

Gal-Or, Esther, and Anindya Ghose. "The economic incentives for sharing security information." Information Systems Research 16.2 (2005): 186-208.

Ploderer, Bernd, et al. "Things you don't want to know about yourself: ambivalence about tracking and sharing personal information for behavior change." Proceedings of the 24th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference. 2012.